Trendsetter: City of Daphne, Ala.

General operations

Then: In 2007, this southern Alabama city’s public water, sewer, and natural gas utility worked with Earth Clean Technologies to pilot a biodiesel plant that uses recycled cooking oil as feedstock to produce highly efficient fuel. And it worked. It collected and processed an average of 600 gallons of used cooking oil each month.

Now: The program is still successful, with a reported $10,000 savings per year. Daphne Utilities continues to explore green technologies, most recently by partnering with Algae Systems LLC to build a wastewater recovery system based on NASA’s OMEGA technology. The process involves placing effluent-filled plastic bags in Mobile Bay to grow algae, which cleans water and consequently generates biofuel.